Detective School
by hannahkannao
Summary: After Kanji and Naoto have been dating for a year, the time has come for Kanji to meet Naoto's grandfather for the first time. (Six years after P4)
1. Chapter 1: Eleven Days Left

**Eleven Days Left**

Valentine's Day was two weeks away. Even if you were dropped off in Inaba via time machine and didn't know what day it was, you could tell that February 14th was soon to come. Every middle-school girl in town was talking about the traditional chocolate exchange, and how to make it absolutely perfect for that special someone. Whether it was the kind of chocolate they were going to get – dark versus milk was an important decision when showing your affection – or what they could do along with the chocolate-giving – putting a card from "your secret admirer" on the lucky student's desk was a favorite around town – it was something that couldn't be half-assed in the slightest.

So when Nanako Dojima practically skipped into Tatsumi Textiles one afternoon, Kanji couldn't say he was surprised. Two girls about her age had already come into the shop over the past few days.

"Yo, Nanako-chan!" Kanji waved at her from behind the register.

Nanako's eyes lit up. "Kanji-niichan! Just the person I wanted to see!" She walked over to the register, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Could you help me with something?"

"Yeah," Kanji said, "What's up?"

"Could you make a kitten for me?"

"For Valentine's Day, right?"

Nanako nodded enthusiastically, handing him 500 yen. "I want to make the kitten hold the chocolate!"

Kanji put the money into the register. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"I'm not telling you that!"

Kanji laughed. "What color do you want?"

Nanako paused and furrowed her brow in thought. "Blue would be nice!"

"Sure thing, kiddo!" Kanji wrote down "blue kitten" on the list of Valentine's Day requests he already had: a tiger and a pink mouse. "I'll have that done for you by next week!"

"Thank you!" Nanako waved as she turned to walk out of the shop.

"Say hi to your dad for me!"

"I will! Bye!"

Nanako walked out of the shop with a smile on her face and disappeared down the street. A second later, she turned towards what Kanji assumed was someone standing on the other side of the shop and began to talk. After a few seconds of giggling, she waved and turned back down the street.

Kanji looked down at the list of the three animals he had to make. If last year was anything to go by, sometime next week at least twenty girls would come in with requests and he'd be swamped right up until 11:59 PM on February 13th. The descent into hell would be filled with blue kittens holding chocolate bars. After a few seconds, the door opened and someone else walked in.

"I see Nanako's as adorable as ever."

The first thing that Kanji noticed when Naoto walked into the shop was her hair. Over the years, she'd experimented with long, short, and everything in between, and the last time he'd seen her, she'd cut it short again. Now, it was just below her shoulders and was held back by a black barrette. It looked good.

"Yeah," Kanji said, "She's pretty cute".

After roughly five and a half years of awkward, Kanji and Naoto had started dating about a year ago, which was even more awkward at first, but had gotten relatively normal as time went on. "Relatively normal", however, still meant pretty awkward.

"So what's up?" Kanji asked, "You want a blue kitten, too?"

"No," Naoto said, "Although I appreciate the offer. You're busy enough this time of year."

"You got that right!" Kanji sighed in exasperation.

"I have something important to tell you, actually," Naoto said.

"Fire away."

"My grandfather has expressed interest in meeting you sometime in the near future, so I proposed the idea of meeting at the estate next weekend, if that works with your schedule."

"What?" He couldn't simply take a break from the workload that came with Valentine's Day, but he couldn't exactly pass this opportunity up either. That would make him look bad, which was one thing he really didn't want to do at this point.

"I could change the date if it makes things easier for you." Naoto must have seen the concern on his face. Of course she did. She was a detective after all, and she probably had harder faces to read than his.

"Nah," Kanji said, "It's fine. As long as I can bring my supplies over. I'll probably have a ton of requests for Valentine's Day."

"Of course," Naoto said.

"Kanji-chan!" Kanji's mom walked in from the back of the store, her eyes lighting up when she saw Naoto. "Naoto-chan! I didn't expect to see you here!"

Naoto gave a little wave.

"What is it, Ma?" Kanji asked.

"I'm sure it can wait until later," Kanji's mom said with a smile, "I can take over the register if you two want to go out."

"I'm fine here," Kanji said, "You don't need to do that."

"Oh, I do!" Kanji's mom wouldn't stop smiling. It was almost creepy. "You two should go out, have some fun! I insist!"

"Thank you very much, Tatsumi-san," Naoto said, "I think that would be great." She shot Kanji a look that said I know what I'm doing and went outside.

Kanji shrugged and went outside as his mom waved goodbye, laughing as she sat down at the register.

"What the hell was that for?" Kanji asked, stepping outside the door of the shop.

"There's more to what I was telling you earlier," Naoto said, "And there are better places to talk besides inside the textile shop."

"Okay, fine," Kanji said, "What is it?"

"It's not as simple as my grandfather just wanting to meet you," Naoto said, "He expects quite a lot from you."

"Like what?" Kanji asked.

"I'm sure you can guess," Naoto said, "I'm twenty-two years old, and I - "She paused, thinking of the right words to say, before letting out a sigh. "The Shirogane line is expected to continue."

"What the hell?" Kanji's voice almost squeaked. That made things possibly even worse than they already were.

"That sounded more awkward than I intended. I apologize."

"It's not your fault."

"Let's move on and get to the point."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"Thankfully, that's not the only thing he's going to be looking for," Naoto said, "He'll most likely be testing your deductive abilities as well."

"I'm not a frickin' detective, though!" Kanji said, "That's your thing! I suck at that, you know I do!"

"Not necessarily," Naoto said, "You just haven't bothered to try yet. You do posses great attention to detail, which may just be the most important part."

"Ah, really?" Kanji scratched his head and laughed nervously.

"Yes," Naoto said, "Nanako told me about the kitten you were making for her for Valentine's Day and she said you get completely flooded with requests next week so she has to come in early to beat the crowds. You wouldn't be that popular around town if you didn't pay attention to what you were making."

"Guess you're right about that," Kanji said, "But I'm not cut out for that kinda thing. Never have been."

"I'm willing to say you're wrong about that," Naoto said, "You have unused potential. And before next week, it's my duty to bring at least some of that potential to light."

"Um, why?"

"The future of - "She paused. "Well, the future of _us_ somewhat depends on it."

"True."

"This sounded like a very stupid idea at first," Naoto said, "But now, I'm starting to get why I thought of it in the first place."

"What stupid idea?" Kanji asked, "Usually I'm the one who thinks of those."

"I'm going to teach you the most rudimentary of detective skills," Naoto said, "And I'm going to try to do it by next Saturday."

"What?"

"I know how it sounds."

"I -"Kanji laughed. "I'm hopeless! I hope you know that."

"No, you're not," Naoto said, "You're going to do quite well, trust me."

"So I'm forced into detective school," Kanji deadpanned, "Let me be the first one to welcome myself into hell."

"Don't be like that," Naoto said, "I'll make sure to make this as easy as possible to start out."

"I'm going to suck!"

"You only need to learn a few things, and you'll be well on your way," Naoto said, "And don't think you need to be especially good at it. You'll only have to do this until you meet my grandfather next Saturday, and then you can forget everything."

"How strict is he about this?"

"Not very."

"Good."

"We're starting tomorrow," Naoto said, "Meet me at the Samegawa at 10 AM, and don't be late. We have a lot of work to do."

"Sure thing," Kanji said, "I should probably get back to the shop, ask Ma if it's okay for me to go next week and all that."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," Naoto said.

As he made his way back to the shop, Kanji knew that tomorrow was either going to be the best day of his life, the worst day of his life, or both – with the latter being by far the most likely.


	2. Chapter 2: Ten Days Left

A/N: Hahaaa totally took inspiration from the American Girl Mini Mysteries series for some of the stuff in here. I read through those books so much when I was a kid :3

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**Ten Days Left**

"Kanji-chan!"

"What, Ma?"

"You should get going now! It's ten minutes before ten!"

Kanji sat up in bed instantly. His mom must have been playing a joke on him. He set an alarm last night to go off at ten minutes to nine, not ten, and daylight saving time didn't start for another month if he remembered correctly. What was the saying, "spring forward, fall back"? It wasn't spring at all; it was still January and definitely still winter, if the light dusting of snow on the ground outside said anything.

He looked at the alarm clock next to the futon, and saw 9:51 AM staring back at him, without a sign of emotion or remorse.

Shit.

Two minutes later, he was running out the front door, holding a container full of leftovers. His mother had insisted that he bring along what was left of dinner last night as exchange for not having enough time for breakfast.

The Samegawa flood plain was ten minutes away by walking, but if he ran as fast as he possibly could, Kanji could probably make it there in the seven minutes he had.

Breaking out into a run, he must have bumped into at least three people, but thankfully not anyone he knew really well.

"Hi, Kanji-kun!"

Never mind.

"Uh, hey, Yukiko-senpai!" He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head, still using the old honorific from high school. "Listen, I kinda have to be somewhere, and I –"

"It's been so long!" Yukiko said, laughing the way she always did. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Kanji said, "If ya don't mind, I really need to go now..."

Yukiko's eyes widened. "We should hang out sometime! Chie's coming to visit next week, we should all catch up!"

As if he wasn't already late enough. "Yeah, that'd be great. Um, I'm kinda busy for the next two weeks, starting right now, so I'd better go!" At least he wasn't lying.

"Oh," Yukiko said, "Then I'll see you later?"

Kanji was too busy running to respond. In that conversation, he'd probably lost a minute that he should have spent running. Now there was no way he'd make it on time. Hopefully Naoto would understand.

After almost sprinting for a few minutes, he arrived at the Samegawa at 10:01. Not bad, considering he woke up ten minutes earlier.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here." Naoto was sitting on a bench, holding a book and what seemed like about twenty pencils.

"Ah, about that..." Kanji chuckled. "My alarm didn't go off and I woke up ten minutes ago."

"Mistakes happen," Naoto said. Despite what she said about not being late yesterday, she seemed surprisingly calm about it. "You may just have to get more work done on your own time."

"Dammit, Naoto! You never said there was going to be homework!"

"I also never said that there wasn't going to be homework. Do you want to prepare for next weekend or not?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Then you may have to put in more effort than you initially thought."

"Fine."

Naoto held out one of her pencils to Kanji and opened the book to the first page.

"What's this?" Kanji asked, "The damn homework?"

"Yes, essentially, but it's more than that." Naoto smiled fondly. "I used to read this all the time when I was younger."

Kanji looked at the book. The first page was filled with a collage of brightly colored shapes, and read "The Hundred Cases of Kenta Morimoto" on the top. Naoto had written her name in huge letters on the bottom of the page. "How long have you had this?"

"I believe I was six or seven when I first received it." Naoto chuckled. "I probably went through this book around thirty times by the time I turned eleven. There is definitely some valuable information in these pages." She flipped through the pages, briefly staring at the pictures littered across them. "It may seem a little childish, but it works well for learning the basics."

"What's the book about?"

"It's more of a workbook, if we need to get technical about it. The basic premise is that Kenta Morimoto is an eleven-year-old boy who solves little 'cases' in his hometown." Naoto turned to the back cover of the book and read aloud, "'Need help finding a lost puppy or getting to the bottom of a fight between friends? Kenta Morimoto is always there!' It's more of a community service task than an actual case, but the point is still there." She turned back to the second page. "Care to try solving one?"

"Not like I have a choice," Kanji said, taking the book and sitting down on the bench. There was a picture of a little boy – he guessed that was Kenta Morimoto himself – sitting in a bed, looking an alarm clock, reading 7:52. There was an exclamation point over Kenta's head and his eyes were widened in shock. The title of the case was "The Faulty Alarm". Kanji sure knew what that felt like.

"'Kenta Morimoto's summer vacation was lots of fun,'" Naoto read, "'But school starts again tomorrow and he has to set his alarm. In order to get to school on time, he has to set his alarm for 7:00 AM. He starts at midnight, and presses the button to skip an hour, to 1:00, 2:00, et cetera. He starts going so fast that he skips 7:00, but decides to keep going around until 7:00 appears again and goes to bed. The next day, he wakes up at 7:52 AM.'" She looked at Kanji expectantly. "So?"

"Dammit," Kanji said, "Did ya choose this just cause I was late?"

"No," Naoto said, "But it is a nice coincidence."

Kanji furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at the book. He didn't know where to begin. Who gave a shit about this Kenta kid anyway? He sure as hell didn't. Everything looked normal about this. So what if Kenta had slept in? Kanji had done the same thing this morning.

"Do you require my assistance? You do look confused."

Naoto was looking up at him, the concern showing in the frown on her face and her widened eyes.

Was he really that bad at this that she needed to ask that before a minute had even gone by?

"I could give you a hint," Naoto continued, "If that would help you."

"Yeah." Kanji had officially surrendered. There was no way he could do this on his own.

Naoto nodded and scooted ever closer to him on the bench. "The clock doesn't go backwards, so Kenta loops back around to the next 7:00."

"I get that! I just don't know where to go with it!"

"Don't get frustrated, you are fully capable of solving this." It was a surprise that she thought he could handle this, even though he really couldn't. In the years they had known each other, Kanji never would have expected Naoto to be this optimistic.

"Hell, no," Kanji said, "I can't get anything out of this!"

"Kanji." Naoto looked right at him. "How many hours are there in a day?"

"Twenty-four. Everyone knows that." Did that mean anything? Was she just messing with him? But she wouldn't do that, would she?

"That's all you need to know," Naoto said, "Think about it for a few minutes." She smiled. "Maybe it will also tell you something about why you were late."

"Will you just let that go already?"

"Punctuality is very important."

Kanji sighed and looked back down at the book. How did twenty-four hours matter? Every day had twenty-four hours.

Would the answer come to him if he did nothing but stare at the damn book for ten minutes?

Probably not.

However, he probably could do this with a little thinking.

Kenta had to wake up at 7:00 on the dot. But he didn't. Just like Kanji had to wake up at 8:50. But he didn't.

It wasn't like there was much of a connection between him and this Kenta guy.

Or was there?

The best way to go about it was to retrace his steps earlier this morning, if there was a connection. This probably wasn't the correct way to do it, but he was used to breaking the rules. How was this any different?

He had woken up after his alarm was supposed to go off – almost exactly an hour afterward, because he was lucky enough not to have slept in any later.

The red flashing numbers of 9:52 AM came back to him as he remembered shooting right out of bed, and -

Wait.

9:52 AM.

Holy shit, he just hit the jackpot.

"Yes!" Kanji shouted, a lot louder than he intended to.

"I assume you have an answer?" Naoto asked.

"Yeah," Kanji said, "So Kenta wanted to wake up at 7:00, yeah? That's 7:00 AM. Am I getting it?"

"Yes, actually," Naoto said, "Please continue. You are definitely on the right track."

"I got this." Kanji grinned. "If he starts at midnight, the first 7:00 he gets to is 7:00 AM. If he skips that, he goes around the clock again to get to the next 7:00, which is 7:00 PM, which means the alarm goes off at 7:00 at night!"

"Nicely done," Naoto said, "I told you that you would do well."

"And I probably should have listened to ya."

"Was it that difficult?"

"Nah, not really, once I got it."

"See?" Naoto smiled. "You do have an affinity for this after all."

"And ya think that's what happened with my clock. I set it for 8:50 PM instead of 8:50 AM."

"Precisely."

"Dammit, you think of everything."

"That's my job."

"Right."

Naoto flipped a few pages forward in the book. "We can do a few of the harder 'cases' here, together, but it would be good practice for you to read through this by Friday." She chuckled. "As far as homework goes, this is pretty tame."

"Sure." Kanji crossed his arms and sat back against the bench. "If you say so."

"How about you give this one a try?" Naoto pointed to another page. "This one was always my favorite when I was around eight." This seemed like the case focusing on the missing puppy the back cover mentioned, as the picture showed Kenta chasing a small dog through a street.

"Mmkay." Kanji's narrowed in concentration.

"If you don't mind." Naoto looked at the picture with a smile. "I'd like to work through this puzzle as well."

"Good," Kanji said, "I'm gonna need the help."

"Then we can work on it together," Naoto said, "I can show you my method of working through problems like this, and I do have the story memorized."

"Really?"

"I read through it many times as a kid."

"Yeah."

Naoto smiled and began to read aloud again. "'Kenta's next-door neighbor, Mrs. Ishiyama, has a dog named Ichigo...'"


	3. Chapter 3: Nine Days Left

A/N: More Mini Mysteries influence in this chapter! Also, this is going to be the shortest chapter in the entire thing! The end result will have 12 or 13 chapters, depending on what happens at the end. Most likely 12.

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**Nine Days Left**

Oh crap.

_ Oh crap._

This was completely hopeless. There was no way in hell that Kanji could solve any of these. It was nice to know that Naoto was willing to give him a sliver of a chance, but he really didn't deserve it. He absolutely sucked at this, and that was never going to change.

As he sat looking at the fifty-sixth of one hundred mini-cases, he realized that he was going to have to give up on this one. Just like he had done on the last fifty-five. It was positively humiliating.

Before he knew it, the sun started to make its presence known over the horizon, and not long after, kids were eagerly talking to each other on the walk to school. Was this a joke? Had he really stayed up all night working on this shit?

And now he had to endure another day of failure. Utter, mortifying failure.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that this book had completely drained him of any motivation he had to do well at this, because if this was considered _easy_, then what the hell was hard? In a week and two days, he would be tested on this, and it felt eerily like a final. A final that he would totally bomb. Hopefully, Naoto's grandfather would be so blown away by Kanji's impeccable character that this wouldn't even matter.

Yeah, like _that _would ever happen.

With any luck, Kanji would end up embarrassing himself as much as he already had. Most likely, though, he would humiliate himself even more, if that was even possible.

Today would be almost, if not exactly the same as yesterday, with Naoto trying to explain more of the book to him, and him having no idea what's going on. On top of that, it would more than likely be raining. He sighed. It wasn't his fault the book was so dumb.

After staring at the book and trying to make some sort of sense out of it, he got out of bed an hour later. Cases solved or not, he needed food. Besides, he only had to look over all one hundred. He was under no pressure to solve them all.

That didn't stop him from feeling really disheartened that he couldn't do it.

Despite walking to the kitchen as quietly as he possibly could, he couldn't say he was surprised when his mom turned around right when he stepped into the room.

"Good morning, Kanji-chan," she said, "You're up early."

"Yeah," Kanji said, "Just couldn't get to sleep."

"That happens to the best of us." She smiled at him. "Are you spending the morning with Naoto-chan again?"

"Yeah. Sorry for not being here."

"Don't worry. You two should spend some time together while she's in town."

"I guess."

"You should tell her to come over for dinner sometime! It would be nice having someone besides the two of us in here."

"Yeah, I'll ask her."

"I'm glad to see you two happy together." She smiled again.

"What are ya talking about?"

"Why do you feel the need to deny it? I'm merely saying you make a nice couple."

From the beginning, Kanji's mom had accepted Naoto as one of the family, and Naoto had said on multiple occasions that she was one of the kindest people she had met in a long time. Kanji thought he was pretty lucky that they got along so well, but he couldn't really imagine it any other way. His mom would give anyone a chance, and she was nice to everyone she'd ever met. When he was younger, and even still now, Kanji had always wanted to be like her. She was kinder, smarter, and definitely a lot more social than he ever could hope to be. Maybe that was the reason the textile shop still got such good business despite being an old shop of its kind.

After a minute passed, the phone rang at exactly 8:00. Kanji's mom was the one to pick it up.

"Hello?" She said. She paused, listening, before smiling once again. "Yes, of course." She held the phone out to Kanji. "It's for you."

"'Ello?"

"Good, you're awake." Naoto sounded like she was in the middle of a crowd. "Something came up, and I'll have to cancel today. I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. I have stuff to do anyway."

"I do have something to ask."

"Fire away, I have time."

She sighed on the other end of the line. "Do you think you could get to Okina City tomorrow? It would make things a lot more convenient for me."

"Yeah, I think so."

"I'm very sorry, though. I know you have a lot to do for the shop. I hope I'm not being a nuisance."

"You ain't being a nuisance. I can catch up next week."

"Oh. All right."

"When should I get there?"

"I think I'll only be busy tomorrow morning, so any time after noon would work."

"Ah, well, in that case, ya wanna grab lunch?"

"Lunch?" She paused for a few seconds. "I think I may have time for that."

"Cool." _Yes! _"See ya tomorrow, I guess."

"Right. I'll see you tomorrow." She hung up.

Putting the phone down, Kanji breathed a sigh of relief. There wouldn't be any humiliating himself today, unless of course, something happened in his day-to-day life. But he was used to that.

"I think she may be the only person your age who has ever called you on the phone," his mother said with a chuckle.

"Maybe," he said, smiling a little bit. He turned back towards his room. "Gonna go get some stuff done."

"All right." She waved as he started walking towards the bedroom.

Once he had entered the room and closed the door, he opened the book once again. The fifty-seventh case was about two girls arguing with each other, and one of them may have been lying. At least, that's what the story said.

After reading it around three times, he couldn't make any sense of it. Why would this girl be lying to her friend in the first place? That was the real mystery here, not whether she was lying or not.

With a grunt, Kanji looked under the futon and grabbed what he had made of Nanako's kitten so far. This would be a hell of a lot easier than trying to figure out a dysfunctional teen friendship.

Needles flying, he finished the head in under an hour. There weren't any details yet, but the head still looked fine without eyes or whiskers. The ears sat on top of the head, and they were a good size compared to the size of the cat. The last time he'd tried to make one, the ears always ended up too big or too small and he'd had to redo it at least five times. That wasn't fun.

There were only four requests so far, but Kanji knew from personal experience that if he put these four off, they would pile up fast. Last year, he had to finish thirty-seven different animals, and while they were fine, they weren't _good_. He had high standards when it came to these things, and he'd be pretty frustrated if they weren't met.

Looking back at the fifty-seventh case, it still didn't make much sense. The general story was that these two girls were both going to go to… something in Room 96 of a certain building, but one of the girls didn't show up, because she saw the room number upside down as 69.

The girl who did go, however, was _pissed. _She thought the other girl didn't actually want to go to this… thing, whatever it was, and was totally lying about it just so she could get out of going.

To Kanji, it sounded perfectly reasonable. If the invitation was handed out over a table, if it was facing the pissed-off girl, the supposedly-lying girl would definitely be able to see it upside down.

After staring at the book for another minute, he still couldn't see anything unusual. It looked like this would just be the fifty-sixth case he gave up on. Dammit, Naoto had said this would be easy!

Just in case, he decided to turn the book upside down and take a look for himself at what 96 said upside down. He knew he looked stupid. Sometimes, you had to look stupid for the sake of doing the right thing.

And wouldn't you know it, he had actually done the right thing this time.

Because 96 upside down didn't say 69. _It still said 96_.

Damn. Had he just solved this one entirely on his own? It had almost gone past him, but no juice. Kanji had seen through the web of deceit that surrounded this event in Room 96, and saw it through until the very end! Hell yeah!

And just when he thought his motivation had been completely sapped, too. Maybe this little burst of enlightenment would give him the energy to go back and solve the last fifty-five. That would be pretty awesome. It was those tiny details that gave the solution to all of them, right? If you looked hard enough and in the right places, those details would make themselves known pretty quickly.

Dammit, Naoto Shirogane had been right once again. Not like Kanji was surprised.


	4. Chapter 4: Eight Days Left

Fast update? Long chapter? What's going on? Haha I just didn't pay attention in history class for the past two days writing all this down! The only chapter that might update this quick is going to be Chapter 8, but that's going to be a bit of a wait! Thanks for the follows/faves/reviews, and see you guys next chapter! 3

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**Eight Days Left**

"The train to Okina City will be arriving in one minute," a lady's voice chirped over the PA system, "Please gather your personal belongings and make your way to the platform."

Kanji had a small duffel bag, containing only a few things: the book, some of his knitting materials in case there was an off moment, a few snacks, a water bottle, and his cell phone. After all, this was only a day trip, right?

The whistle blew loudly as the train pulled into the station.

"The train to Okina City is now arriving," the lady said over the PA, "Please be careful as you board the train."

Along with maybe five other people, Kanji got on the train and took a seat near the back. This was the good thing about not taking a train during rush hour; in the middle of the morning, there were actually seats to take.

"The train to Okina City is now departing," the lady's voice came again, "We will be arriving at 12:14 PM. Enjoy your ride, and don't be afraid to ask an attendant if you require assistance."

As the train pulled out of the station, the first thing Kanji did was stare out the window. The train passed by fields of grass and flowers and over a small creek. There wasn't a person in sight until the train got just outside of Okina itself, two hours later.

The train didn't have many people inside of it either. The only people relatively close to where Kanji was sitting were two businessmen in suits and an old woman contemplating the scenery outside the window.

Kanji opened his bag and took out Nanako's kitten. Yesterday, he had fully completed the head and started on the body. Now the kitten had eyes, a nose, a mouth, and tiny whiskers, and it looked fine so far. If he could have gotten it done a bit faster, that would have been better, especially since today was the day when requests would start flooding in, at least two a day. But it wasn't like he had a choice; he'd just have to go as fast as he could. There were other things to do, anyway.

"We are now arriving at Okina City." The lady's voice on the train was the same as the one at the station. "Please gather your belongings and prepare to exit the train, if you are planning to exit at this stop."

Everyone who was anywhere near Kanji on the train got up and grabbed their bags before walking towards the door, Kanji following them as the last one out of the car once the doors opened.

His height eventually proved to be his advantage, as he could see over the tons of people who were getting off the train at this stop, as well as the throngs of people just at the station. It was surprising at first, before he realized that this was the city. Of course there would be people here. It was just very... busy. People were all getting off the train, on the train, checking their phones while waiting for a train. Back in Inaba, the train station was usually pretty deserted, but that definitely wasn't the case here.

A second later, Kanji's phone buzzed in his bag, most likely with a text from Naoto. Taking out his phone, he realized his suspicions were exactly right.

"Were you on the train that just came in?" the text read.

"Yeah, where are you?" he typed back.

The response came about a minute later.

"I'm right next to the ticket counter," it read.

"Cool, I'll be there in a second," he typed out, before pressing send and putting his phone back in his bag. He had to weave through all the people getting on the train as he made his way to the ticket counter, but at least he could see over most of their heads.

"Hello?" Naoto was on the phone when Kanji walked up. "Yes." She paused, waiting for the person on the other end to talk. "You didn't interfere with anything, at least with anything major." She looked up and saw him walking towards her, giving him the tiniest wave. "Sorry, I have to go. I'll talk to you later." She hung up and put her phone away.

"Hey," Kanji said, standing next to her to try to get out of the crowd.

"Hello," Naoto said, "Was the train ride fairly decent?"

"Yeah," Kanji said, "Nothing much actually happened, but it was okay."

"Good," Naoto said.

"So what were ya doing here?"

"An emergency came up, and since I came in here once last year, they already knew me, so they called me and I came in."

"Oh."

"Are we still getting lunch? I thought that was the original plan."

"Uh, yeah, if ya still want to." Kanji paused briefly. "It's your choice. I know jack shit about Okina."

"Oh," Naoto said, "Well, there is a restaurant fairly close to here. It's not very well known, but I went there once the last time I was here and I do quite like their ramen."

"Okay, then," Kanji said, "Let's go. I'm not exactly down with the crowd."

Naoto nodded, and the two of them weaved their way through the crowd. Once they got out of the station, the late January cold hit them like a steamroller without the body heat of the hundreds of other people inside. There was still an inch of two of snow on the ground, and everyone they saw on the street was bundled up in multiple layers of clothing.

"So where's this ramen place anyway?" Kanji asked.

"I think it's only a few blocks this way," Naoto said, leading the way down the street. "I may not remember correctly, which may be a problem."

"If you really screw this up, you have a phone. We'll find the damn ramen."

"You're right, I do." She looked up at him, smiling the littlest bit. "I told you, you have great attention to detail."

"Apparently."

"Speaking of which, how did you do on the Hundred Cases?"

"I got ten of them done."

"Really? That's actually better than I expected."

"What's that s'posed to mean?"

At that comment, Naoto looked up and laughed slightly. "It doesn't mean anything, I just had a

prediction and you proved it to be false." She turned at the corner and walked down the street, Kanji close behind. "I'm pretty sure that it's in this direction."

"You'd better be, I've never been here!"

"Yes, I'm aware of that."

They walked through the snowy streets for about two minutes more, taking about three turns along the way that Kanji couldn't hope to remember. The streets were crowded, and it was tough to see where Naoto was going until she broke away from the crowd and turned onto a quiet street, filled with mostly apartments on either side. At the end of the block, the bottom floor of an apartment building was decorated with multicolored lights and an smudged, old-looking sign that Kanji couldn't read, most likely from the years of rain it had to endure.

"Here it is!" Naoto opened the door and walked inside. "It isn't anything special, but I enjoyed it last time."

"How'd you find out about this place anyway?" Kanji looked around the small restaurant. It was practically deserted, except for three people seated at the bar and an older couple at one of the tables.

"It was quite an ordeal when I came in last year, so after everything got settled, three of my colleagues took me here to celebrate." She sat down at a table next to the window. "Apparently, it's something not many people know about, and it's almost a town secret."

"Huh." Kanji sat down across from Naoto at the table.

The man standing behind the bar had looked up at the two of them briefly when they walked in, but now when he looked up again, he paused for a moment before giving a bright smile.

"Ah, Shirogane!" He said, "I knew I remembered you from somewhere!"

"Hello, Yamaguchi-san," Naoto said, "How are you?"

Eh, same as usual," he said, "It's been a long time since you've been in here! What have you been doing for the past year?" His eyes widened and he chuckled when he saw Kanji sitting across from Naoto at the table. "I've met you exactly once, but I didn't think you'd end up getting a boyfriend!"

"It – it isn't -" Naoto reddened slightly for a second before regaining her composure.

Mr. Yamaguchi laughed, a loud, booming kind of laugh right from the gut. "I'm just kidding with you! You two are probably hungry!" He turned toward the door leading to the kitchen. "Hey, Ichiro! We've got an order!"

"Coming, dad!" A boy, not older than sixteen or seventeen, came out of the kitchen, wearing a hoodie over what looked like a uniform, consisting of jeans and a black t-shirt with a smiling bowl of noodles on it. He opened a black notepad as he approached the table and took out a pencil.

"Hello, my name's Ichiro, welcome to Noodle Town," he said once he reached the table, "Are you ready to order?"

"I am," Naoto said, before looking across the table at Kanji. "If you're not ready, I can wait."

"Nah, I'm good," Kanji said, closing the menu and putting it down on the table, "I'll just get whatever you're having."

Naoto nodded before looking up at Ichiro. "I'll have the original ramen, thank you."

"All right," Ichiro said, writing the order on his notepad. Once he finished writing, he turned to Kanji. "The same for you, sir?"

"Hey, Ichiro!" Mr. Yamaguchi said from behind the bar, "Perk up a bit, will ya? These are important customers we're dealing with!"

"Dad, that's what you say about everyone that comes in here," Ichiro said, rolling his eyes.

"That's cause it's true! Every customer's a VIP, that's the Noodle Town motto!"

"Fine," Ichiro said, before turning back to Kanji, "So you'll be getting the original ramen, too?"

"Yeah," Kanji said.

"You'll love it," Ichiro said, "It's a family recipe."

"That's the spirit!" Mr. Yamaguchi said.

Ichiro rolled his eyes and went back into the kitchen.

"So," Kanji said, "What kinda hell do you have in mind this time?"

"You're being awfully pessimistic about this," Naoto said, "This may very well be the part when this starts to get fun."

"What?"

"Next week, you won't be tested on what you did yesterday and the day before." She paused, before smiling a little. "You won't be tested on much of anything. To be honest, it will mostly be a test of character."

"You're worried your grandpa's gonna hate me?"

"Not very much. He thinks I have good judgment, when it comes to most things, this being one of them."

"Well, that's good."

"You just can't swear every other word like you usually do."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Shit, he'd just proven her right.

"My grandfather always says that the first and most important step to solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem to be solved in the first place," Naoto said, "You're already well on your way."

"You suck, you know that?"

"You aren't the first person to tell me that."

"I know."

"Things like that don't have as much impact once you've been hearing them for ten years."

"Jeez, tell me about it."

They sat in silence for about two minutes. During that time, Naoto took her phone out twice and typed out two texts, keeping a straight face the whole time.

"Hey, um, Naoto?" Kanji asked.

"Yes?" Naoto didn't look up from her phone.

"What else should I do?" He paused. "Like for next week and all that?"

"You don't really need to do anything," Naoto said, "Well, not anything extra."

"What?"

"There is some more that I am planning to do this week."

"Like what?"

"Tomorrow and possibly Sunday, depending on everyone's schedule, I'm planning on having you watch what a typical case is like. Then on Monday through Friday, I'm not quite sure what's going to happen."

"Are you sure you can do that?"

"I believe so. If you don't do anything especially reckless, I'm sure we won't encounter any problems."

"All right." Kanji leaned back in his seat. "Am I gonna have to spend four hours on a train every day? Because Valentine's Day's coming up quick, and I'm gonna get busy."

"Everything's going to be back in Inaba for a while, so transportation won't be an issue." Naoto smiled slightly. "I may have purposefully arranged it that way."

"Hey, uh, thanks for doing all this."

"You're welcome. It's my pleasure."

"Hey, here's your ramen!" Ichiro had come back from the kitchen, holding two steaming bowls of ramen. "Enjoy your lunch!"

"Thank you," Naoto said, picking up her chopsticks.

"Damn, that was ready fast," Kanji said. He paused, realizing exactly _what _he'd said. "Sorry." He chuckled. "Old habits die hard!"

"It's okay," Naoto said, starting to eat her ramen. After swallowing, she looked back up at Kanji. "You should try it. It's delicious."

"Fine." Kanji knew it wasn't exactly polite, but he slurped the ramen anyway. Besides, he was trying to be quiet.

"So?" Naoto asked, "How is it?"

"Wow, this is really good!" Kanji still had ramen in his mouth, but he didn't care. "Nice choice of food."

"Thank you."

They both ate for about ten minutes with not a word spoken the entire time. Kanji honestly wasn't surprised at the lack of conversation. His mom had said once that if the food was good enough, people would be too focused on eating to talk. And Kanji didn't really mind. Talking was awkward.

"When does your return train come?" Naoto asked, right after she finished her ramen.

"4:00," Kanji said, "What time is it?"

"1:32." Naoto looked at her phone briefly before putting it away. "Which leaves you with two hours and twenty-eight minutes."

"Yeah," Kanji said, "So what are we gonna do?'

"I'm not sure," Naoto said. A second later, her eyes brightened. "Would you be interested in walking around downtown? It would help you get acquainted with the city."

"I'm down for whatever." Kanji shrugged. "You're the one who actually knows what there is to do around here."

"Right. Then downtown it is." Naoto stood up from the table, writing a quick check and leaving it next to the empty bowl.

"Have fun, you two!" Mr. Yamaguchi waved at them with a bright smile as they exited the shop.

"Seriously?" Kanji asked once the door closed behind them, "People can just refer to us as 'you two' now?"

"It was an inevitability," Naoto said, as the two of them walked back into the heart of the city.


End file.
